WASHINGTON — Shootings and other acts of violence are becoming credit risks for U.S. institutions, with fallout from the July 20 mass shooting in a movie theater in Aurora spreading all the way to the bonds sold by the University of Colorado at Denver, Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday.

“The shooting in Aurora is one of a number of tragic violence-related incidents that have led to lawsuits against universities and other not-for-profit organizations over the last year,” the rating agency said, noting that on Jan. 14 the wife of a victim of the shooting sued the university.

“The lawsuits are credit negative for affected universities because they create financial and reputational risks and divert senior management’s efforts away from other operating activities,” it added.

CU spokesman Ken McConnellogue told The Denver Post that the university’s credit rating remains “stable and unchanged” and that the report “doesn’t reflect what we’ve heard out of Moody’s.”

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